About Intimate Image Abuse

Why and where is it shared?

Why is it shared?

In some cases the content is shared in an act of revenge to embarrass, humiliate or cause distress to a person after the breakdown of a relationship, but it’s not always about REVENGE. Content can be shared as a way of financial extortion or blackmail, sometimes known as ‘sextortion’, or it can be shared to expose someone who has a high profile status. It can also be an element in a wider case of stalking and harassment or domestic abuse.

Where can it be shared?

As we know, the internet is a massive space for platforms to share content. We see most content shared on social media platforms or general porn websites. In some cases links to the content is emailed or sent to family and friends or employers. Some cases have stemmed from hacked devices or cloud storage (for example the high profile iCloud hack where hundreds of images were accessed, including those of celebrities).

English and Welsh Law

In April 2015, the Criminal Justice and Courts Act made it, 'an offence for a person to disclose a private sexual photograph or film if the disclosure is made without the consent of an individual who appears in the photograph or film, and with the intention of causing that individual distress'. 

See the full legislation here.

In April 2017, the Sentencing Council included the ‘threat to disclose intimate material or sexually explicit images’, within its guideline for offences under the Communications Act 2003. These guidelines came into effect from 1st October 2018.

• Sentencing guidelines: Disclosing private sexual images, (Effective from 1st October 2018). 
• Sentencing guidelines: Communication network offences (Revised 2017)

What are sentencing guidelines? Guidelines provide guidance on factors the court should take into account that may affect the sentence given. They set out different levels of sentence based on the harm caused to the victim and how blameworthy the offender is. Offences happen in many different ways with many different results.

Other Legislation

There are also several other Acts which may cover this type of behaviour:

• The Theft Act 1968, this includes extortion and blackmail.
• The Malicious Communications Act 1988, this includes sending threatening or offensive messages.
• The Protection from Harassment Act 1997, this includes stalking or any other persistent behaviour that causes distress. For the harassment element to apply the behaviour needs to be a repeated act, for example replicating the images on numerous sites, reposting over a period of time or repeated messaging.
• Sexual Offences Act 2003, this includes voyeurism and will hopefully include upskirting in the near future.

Upskirting
The act of taking a photograph up someone’s skirt or dress without their consent is referred to as ‘Upskirting’. The UK legislation is set to be included in section 67 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, this will bring the punishment for ‘upskirting’ in line with other existing sexual offences, including voyeurism, and the changes will see offenders face a maximum of two years in prison. 
If you are interested in the progression of this offence, you can follow the government press release information here:
Government acts to make upskirting a specific offence
Upskiting law moves a step closer 

‘Upskirting’ is already a crime in Scotland since the amendment of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 under the offence of Voyeurism. It is against Scottish law to operate equipment beneath someone’s clothing to observe and/or record their genitals or buttocks, exposed or covered by clothing, without their consent. 

Anonymity
Since the creation of image based abuse offences in the UK, a large amount of cases of victims taking their perpetrators to the justice system are dropped due to their anonymity being denied. It was reported in June 2018, that 1 in 3 allegations were dropped before making it to court. (See this BBC article here)

In other sexual offences, such as rape, the identity of the victim is hidden from media and the general public and their name or any personal information cannot be released. For victims of image based abuse, their identity is not hidden. Due to the distress and humiliation nature of the offence, this often discourages victims to pursue their justice rights. 

We are working alongside the Office for the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire, Julia Mulligan, to campaign for the disclosure of private images to be reclassified as a sexual offence to give victims the right to anonymity and identity protection. Read more about the #NoMoreNaming campaign here.